Still no recovery in sight for Europe’s cod stocks

Brussels, Belgium – Cod stocks will remain perilously low unless the European Commission and the EU Fisheries Council follow ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) advice to considerably reduce fishing in European waters, warns WWF.

To prevent its commercial collapse, ICES published today a press release on its scientific advice demanding a complete halt to cod fishing in Kattegat, the strait between Sweden and Denmark, in 2006.

"Recovery plans for cod stocks in Kattegat adopted in 2003 are clearly failing to reduce fishing mortality as needed to recover the stock”, said Charlotte Mogensen, WWF’s European Fisheries officer. “Now ICES has yet again advised zero catch, which the EU Fisheries Council should finally take on. We desperately need a change for the better in decision making at the EU Fisheries Council level if we are ever to manage fish stocks sustainably.”

In the Baltic Sea, cod stocks are at record lows, with illegal and unregulated fishing and high levels of discard of fish below the minimum landing size representing significant threats. In 2004, plans to close areas of the Baltic Sea to cod fishing were adopted, but according to the global conservation organisation such measure cannot be effective without strict monitoring.

For several years now ICES has advised that the European eel stock is in need of recovery measures. For 2006 ICES recommends that fishing is reduced to zero as the stock is now at its lowest level ever.

WWF urges the EU Member States to adopt an ambitious recovery plan and support the proposal of a listing of eels on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna).

ICES has also made an urgent request to the European Commission to immediately close the anchovy fishery in the Bay of Biscay, as the stock is severely depleted.

“The decline in anchovy stocks in the Bay of Biscay is yet another example of Europe’s mismanagement of fisheries, said Charlotte Mogensen. “It is time to halt all this and that decision makers immediately adopt emergency measures to close this fishery.”

For further information:

Espen Nordberg, Marine and Fisheries Policy Officer, WWF Denmark, Tel. +45 35 24 78 42, Mobile +45 26 25 70 14, Email: e.nordberg@wwf.dk

Claudia Delpero, WWF European Policy Office, Tel. +32-2-7400925, Mobile +32-497-406381, Email cdelpero@wwfepo.org

Notes to editors:

·        ICES is the International Council in the Exploration of the Seas, the organisation that coordinates and promotes marine research in the North Atlantic. ICES acts as a meeting point for a community of more than 1600 marine scientists from 19 countries around the North Atlantic. More information at www.ices.dk

·        The decision on fishing quota for 2006 in EU waters will be made by the EU Fisheries Council in December 2005.